Controversy Surrounds the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009 (HR 875)

Laudable intentions, to be sure. But the path to making it happen continues to be bumpy.

A Patchwork Quilt

The nation’s food safety system is overseen by a patchwork of more than a dozen federal agencies, led by the FDA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Other responsible agencies include the Environmental Protection Agency—for pesticide and water quality standards—and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for disease surveillance and outbreak response. Hundreds of state and local agencies are also involved.

The FDA oversees about 80% of the U.S. food supply, including $417 billion in domestic food and $49 billion in imported food annually. The agency is responsible for ensuring the safety of almost all food products sold in the U.S., except for meat, poultry, and some egg products, all of which are regulated by USDA.

The task is daunting: There are 44,000 food manufacturers and processors, 114,000 food retailers, and 935,000 restaurants in the U.S. According to the CDC, 76 million Americans get sick annually from unsafe food products; 325,000 of them are hospitalized, and 5,000 die from foodborne hazards. Salmonella alone infects an estimated 1.4 million Americans each year, killing more than 400 of them.

“Just in the past two years, American consumers have been confronted with melamine in milk, tainted peppers, Salmonella in peanut products, and E. coli in spinach,” said Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.), chairman emeritus and cosponsor of food safety legislation being drafted by the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health, in comments prepared for a hearing in June.

The measure, called the Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009 (HR 2749), has emerged as the main food safety bill in the House. It combines elements from other bills, mainly the following:

• HR 759, the Food and Drug Administration Globalization Act, also sponsored by Rep. Dingell;
• HR 1332, the Safe Food Enforcement, Assessment, Standards, and Targeting Act (FEAST), sponsored by Reps. Jim Costa (D-Calif.) and Adam Putnam (R-Fla.); and
• Rep. DeRosa’s HR 875.

Republicans are willing to work with the Democrat majority to craft a bipartisan food safety overhaul bill, said Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), the committee’s ranking member and a cosponsor of the Costa-Putnam bill.

The Food Safety Enhancement Act, which was approved by the House Energy and Commerce Committee in June and which may be voted on in the full House before the August summer recess, would require that:

• the FDA create an electronic, interoperable record-keeping system that manufacturers would be required to use so the agency could quickly trace the source of any outbreak to its origin;
• the FDA set standards for food safety and give the agency stronger enforcement authorities, including civil and criminal penalties, access to records, and the power to order recalls;
• the FDA inspect food facilities at established minimum intervals; and
• companies conduct hazard and risk analyses of their products and implement and document preventive controls.

National Standards

The FDA generally relies on state and local authorities to oversee food grown on farms. The draft bill would require the agency to develop “national science-based safety standards” to reduce on-farm food contamination. “I am confident that farmers have nothing to fear from this bill,” said committee chairman Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), in an attempt at reassurance, in comments prepared for a June hearing. Because FDA regulations are created with input from the public, “stakeholders will be able to work with FDA to ensure that the best possible standards and practices are adopted,” Rep. Waxman said.

The measure would also require every U.S. food manufacturing company to register with the FDA and pay a $500 annual fee per facility and capped at $175,000 per company annually. The bill would require FDA inspections every six to 18 months for high-risk facilities, every 18 to 36 months for low-risk facilities, and every three to four years for warehouses.